Today, On 16th June, The Government of India has officially announced the start of the Caste Census from the year 2026, issuing a formal notification to begin data collection in select regions ahead of the 2027 nationwide census.
The Government of India officially announced that the next Census will take place in 2027. This announcement made through a notification from the Ministry of Home Affairs, signed by Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
This new notification overrides the previous one issued on March 26, 2019, which was published in the Gazette of India on March 28, 2019.
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The government has clarified that this change does not impact any work or decisions already made under the earlier notification.
The notification states,
“The Central Government hereby declares that a census of the population of India shall be taken during the year 2027.”
Additionally, the government has set reference dates for this significant undertaking. For most regions of India, data collection will begin at 00:00 hours on March 1, 2027.
However, for certain areas that are challenging to access due to snow or difficult terrain, separate arrangements have been made.
Specifically, the notification reads,
“The reference date for the said census shall be 00.00 hours of the 1st day of March, 2027, except for the Union territory of Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.”
For these exceptional locations, the reference date has been set as,
“00:00 hours of the 1st day of October, 2026.”
This measure ensures that regions impacted by snowfall or extreme weather conditions are accurately counted before they become inaccessible.
The notification, issued under file number F. No: 9/8/2025- CD (Cen), is dated June 16, 2025, and appears in the Extraordinary Gazette of India, Part II, Section 3(ii).
With this official announcement, preparations for India’s next decennial population survey have officially commenced. This will be the first complete census since 2011, as the 2021 exercise was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The upcoming census is expected to play a important role in policy-making, development planning, and administrative functions at both national and state levels.
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